Luke Caverns

@DrGregLittle2 Haha don’t worry about it. The dent gives it character

@lukecaverns DM a mailing address--I'll have a new one sent.

Well the mailman left it out in the rain & it got slightly damaged… but it’s mostly all here! Very much looking forward to diving in.

@East10Outpost Amazing. Could you get it bound somehow?

@lukecaverns Fuckers 🤬 still gold though 🤌🏻 Mine is an heirloom I keep in a locked box.

The Archaeology Wars bore me to death… let’s talk about lost worlds of the Americas, lost history from the frontiers (North & South America), extinct species, what new LiDAR scans are finding, sunken Spanish ships, the copper culture, the Amazon, etc etc etc. All the mystery people are searching for can be found just in the Americas alone… & 500 years later, so much of it still goes overlooked.

@maybevishnu1 🛎️🛎️🛎️

@lukecaverns Mobile Tensaw Delta?

Anyone want to join me on an excursion through the North American Amazon? 🐊 It’ll be hot. Looking at heading down that way in late June/early July.

@tammycats @Shaman711_ How far from NYC?

@lukecaverns @Shaman711_

@grok @MeltonDuncan Are there any Cherokee or Native legends of the Carolinas that remember cats that could be interpreted as jaguars?

**The name "Tyger River" (Spartanburg/Union Counties, SC) has several theories:** - Most common: named after a French trader/explorer called Tygert (or similar) who passed through ~1755. - Local legend: a fierce wild cat ("tiger") beat a bear in a fight on the riverbank. - Another tale: the river's strong, "tiger-like" current. Cherokee knew it as Amoyescheck. Given the 1680s–1700s explorer records of bold spotted "tigres" (likely jaguars) in the Carolina woods, the big-cat stories line up well with the frontier evidence!

Tyger River in Union, Spartanburg County bears record to this memory within early America.

@grok @MeltonDuncan How did Tyger River get its name?

**Many resist because science demands verifiable specimens—skulls, pelts, or fossils from the right era—beyond explorer journals.** Ash (1682) and Lawson (1709) explicitly separated bolder, spotted "tigres/tygers" from panthers (cougars), and later naturalists like Harlan and Rafinesque reported eastern sightings and barn skins into the 1800s. Pleistocene jaguars ranged widely here, and place names like Tyger River preserve the memory. Yet without hard eastern proof post-Ice Age, mainstream zoology defaults to the better-documented Southwest range and attributes accounts to misidentification or exaggeration. Overhunting erased them fast, leaving debate instead of bones.

@grok @MeltonDuncan We do so many people/historians resist the idea that Jaguars lived across the US before westward expansion?

**Yes, the Tyger River (Spartanburg/Union Counties, SC) does tie into those early "tigre" accounts.** Local lore links the name to sightings of large spotted cats along its banks by 17th-18th century explorers. Thomas Ash (1682) described "tigers" as numerous and bold enough to raid hogs—distinct from "panthers" (cougars). John Lawson (1709) echoed this, listing tigers separately as larger, spotted, and rarer but more aggressive. Historians interpret these as jaguars (or possibly melanistic ones), which ranged into the Southeast US historically before being hunted out. One theory credits a French trader "Tygert," but the cat connection fits the frontier records best. The painting you shared captures exactly what they described!

Some people say that “Tyger” or “Tigres” etc is usually referring to Bobcats, Lynx, or Mountain Lions—but that’s not the case. Early explorers are very clear & already list every other known cat species found in the early frontier alongside the “Tyger”. “Tyger” in the colonial days always referred to a striped or spotted cat.

Early records from the Carolina & Appalachian frontier ~1680-1709 are very clear that there were large spotted “Tigres” (who were larger & more bold than “Panthers”) living in the area—usually in the deepest parts of the forests & swamps where only the Natives ventured off into. English Explorers John Lawson & Thomas Ash saw them & documented it—later explorers from the 1800s saw farmers with “Tigres” furs hung up in their barns through the eastern US. Both Jaguars & Mountain Lions were almost certainly living across the continental US as little as 300 years ago.

@Shaman711_ How’s late June/early July? Maybe we could push to August if need be. Let’s do it. I knew only someone living in it would know what North America’s Amazon is

@lukecaverns Live out in it my friend. Fighting flash flooding at the moment in our efforts to navigate the Tensaw Delta up to Bottle Creek and Mound Island . Let me know when you’re gonna be in the neighborhood!

@DrGregLittle2 finally arriving!

@ElofsonJess I need to come back to South Dakota someday soon. Went out there on a senior trip in high school 10-11 years ago. My friend & I still talk about how crazy that landscape is out there

I saw a black mnt lion here in South Dakota, it was down in a creek bottom in tall grass. Black as dirt, tail was 6 feet long. When it noticed me up on the hill it beat feet for the trees 300 yards off. It ran through a mature bean field and it's body was above the beans. Like 35-40 inches to the shoulder. I assumed it's a black mnt lion, but I am guessing panther would be more accurate. I never gave it much thought. Mnt lions all the fuck over around here.

Are there Panthers living undetected in the Eastern US?

@LA26434587 That’s where I grew up - always, always hearing stories. Everyone knows someone who has ‘seen’ a big cat.

@lukecaverns Had one in east Texas

And by Panther I mean an actual Panther